Indian Community Centre, Former Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church Hall, 86 Clifton Street, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT13 1AB

Indian Community Centre

This is a Grade B1 listed building, formerly the Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church Hall, located on the south side of Clifton Street in Belfast. Built around 1888 to designs by architect J. J. Phillips for Alderman James Carlisle, it is a substantial two-storey structure with attic space in the Gothic Revival style. The building forms part of the broader Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church complex and now serves as an Indian Community Centre.

The building is rectangular in plan with an advanced entrance tower and multiple gable projections across its front elevation. It is constructed of coursed rock-faced limestone ashlar with red sandstone courses, featuring a limestone plinth course with sandstone chamfered trim. Weathered buttresses provide structural emphasis throughout.

The roofs are steeply pitched and covered in natural slate with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles, set behind slightly raised gables with roll-moulded stone coping and poppy-head finials. Rainwater goods consist of original cast-iron work and replacement steel elements.

Windows throughout are pointed-headed lancets arranged in groups, with stepped red sandstone frames, hood mouldings, splayed sills, and much original leaded coloured glazing survives. The front elevation is organised around a central gable with an entrance tower to its left, a lower gable to the left of the tower, and a further single-bay two-storey section to the right.

The single-bay gable to the left is flanked by gableted weathered buttresses and contains an oculus to the gable head. The paired lancets to the first floor and group of five lancets to the ground floor retain original leaded coloured glazing with continuous sill courses.

The advanced entrance tower stands on a square plan with weathered broaches rising to an octagonal truncated tower. The octagonal parapet is built in red sandstone with panelled recesses featuring quatrefoil piercings, weathered splayed sills, and truncated colonettes rising from a continuous string course. A sexfoil opening with leaded glazing occupies the middle stage. A shallow gabled entrance doorcase with poppy-head finial is flanked by pairs of gableted piers. The pointed-headed compound arched door opening contains double-leaf vertically-sheeted hardwood doors with decorative iron furniture beneath a corbelled lintel cornice with infilled overlight. The entrance opens onto a concrete paved platform with original cast-iron railing and a partially intact standard lamp.

The central gable is framed by a three-stage weathered buttress to the right, surmounted by an octagonal finial with trefoil blind panels and conical weathered top. An oval opening to the gable head contains timber louvres with hood moulding, flanked below by a further pair of oculi with quatrefoil carvings and hood mouldings. Tripartite lancet windows to the first floor feature compound moulded surrounds with slender colonettes and original leaded coloured glazing. A series of lancets spans the entire ground floor, with the central six featuring coloured leaded glazing and the outer pairs blind.

The single-bay section to the right has angled three-stage buttresses at the corner surmounted by a pinnacle matching the principal gable design. Its parapet wall features moulded coping and a decorative string course with rose nail mouldings. Tripartite lancet window openings to the first floor and six-light lancets to the ground floor retain original leaded coloured glazing throughout.

The south side elevation abuts an adjoining building closely and is largely obscured.

The rear (east) elevation presents a symmetrical cement-rendered appearance with a central gable abutted by a lower gabled projection. An oval timber louvred panel occupies the apex with continuous hood moulding. A pair of oculi formed in redbrick flanks the gabled projection, both containing leaded coloured glazing. Sections to either side feature rendered brick chimneys with terracotta pots. The gabled projection contains a tripartite window opening at ground level with coloured leaded glazing.

The north side elevation comprises a triple-height gable to the left and a two-storey section to the right, three windows wide. The gable is surmounted by a poppy-headed finial and flanked by three-stage weathered buttresses surmounted by octagonal finials matching the front design. A trefoil carved panel occupies the apex, with a large rose window featuring a sexfoil frame and replacement leaded glazing below. A series of six lancets to the first floor sits on a deep moulded sill course with leaded coloured glazing, accompanied by two blind lancets. The ground floor contains a central pointed-headed door opening flanked by tripartite lancets. The trefoil-headed door opening features bowtel moulding and double-leaf vertically-sheeted hardwood doors with iron furniture and a lozenge-shaped leaded coloured overlight. The door sits within a pointed-headed opening with dagger panels to the spandrels, further bowtel moulded surround and hood moulding with figurative label stops. The entrance opens onto a stone-paved front area. Three paired lancets to the first floor of the remaining two-storey section contain leaded coloured glazing, while paired square-headed windows to the ground floor are largely boarded up.

The building is set on an elevated site as part of the Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church complex on the south side of Clifton Street. It is enclosed to the street by decorative iron railings and gates set on a limestone plinth wall with red sandstone piers topped by tapered capstones.